


There's a shadow hanging over me

by kenwayallgetalong



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dragons, Genji POV, Implied Genji/Mercy, Shimada Shuffle Makes Ya Rustle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-07-28
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609660
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kenwayallgetalong/pseuds/kenwayallgetalong
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The 'Dragons' short, told from Genji's perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	There's a shadow hanging over me

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from 'Yesterday' by the Beatles.

A figure slipped across the rooftops of Hanamura, moving like liquid smoke across the clay tiles, silhouetted against the neon skyline in the distance.  _Laughter. Smoke._

They leapt across a narrow alleyway and kept moving, the arcade just below them. _Neon. Sweat._

Rikimaru, the ancient noodle shop rose out of the darkness, still there after all those years. _Steam. Chicken._

Another figure dropped to the ground below them, a quiver of arrows slung across his back, a bow held loosely in his left hand. _Hanzo_.

Genji paused; standing on a roof above Hanzo as his brother quickly scanned the street, then sprinted up towards Hanamura Castle, unaware of Genji silently assessing him from above. He was older, his jet-black hair streaked with patches of grey. And the bow, that was new. He remembered Hanzo had always had an interest in it, true, but a ninja’s true prowess was with his blade.

Genji knew that especially well, remembering the bite of Hanzo’s katana cutting into his skin.He shook his head, and forced himself to focus, following Hanzo as he scaled the walls of Hanamura with ease, Genji hanging back and following silently.

He watched as Hanzo dispatched the guards within with brutal efficiency, but non-lethally, he noticed. The men would survive, and he knew of Hanzo’s disregard for Omnics. _Interesting. Has his bloodlust cooled?_ Then he remembered finding former Shimada strongholds, ones Overwatch had forgotten, but Hanzo had ruthlessly torn apart. He knew his brother’s anger firsthand, had felt it spilling out of him.

 _Caution_ , he warned himself, feeling Zenyatta’s teachings come back to him. _Forgiveness brings peace_. He sped on.

He followed Hanzo through the courtyard of Hanamura, sticking to the rooftops while Hanzo jogged through the gardens below, slowing as he came to the main hall. Genji sprinted towards the wall, and, scaling it easily, made his way into the rafters of the room, watching Hanzo from above as he approached the tapestry, still torn, and adorned with his own blood.

 _Genji!_ The memories bubbled up, threatening to overwhelm him. _The sickening scrape of steel as he unsheathed his katana, pointing it at Genji_. _Accusing him of betraying the Shimada clan._ _Control_ , he warned himself. _Pain and anger are excellent teachers, but they cannot fuel you alone_. He noticed the katana on display at the base of the tapestry, the steel still razor sharp.

Hanzo’s old blade. _Curious_. Genji knelt above his brother, and began to meditate, ready, as the smoky smell of incense wafted up from below. 

-

“You are not the first assassin sent to kill me, and you will not be the last.” Hanzo had spoken quietly, with a decisive edge to his voice, but in his meditation, he may as well have been screaming in Genji’s face.

In the darkness of the roof, Genji activated his body, ready for combat. Adrenaline receptors were poised to release, and he loosened his blades in their sheaths, as his body took on a green glow. He dropped from the ceiling, feather-light, and slowly rose from his crouch behind Hanzo, in the centre of the room.

“You are bold, to come to Shimada Castle, the den of your enemies.” Genji said, keeping his voice masked, cocking his head slightly. “This was once my home.” Hanzo sighed. Genji noticed his hand drift over to his bow. “Did you masters not tell you who I was?” He roared, seizing his bow, nocking an arrow, and loosing it at Genji in a smooth, fluid movement, impossibly fast.

Genji leant to the side, almost casually, as the arrow sped past where his body had been moments before. “I know who you are, Hanzo.” The name felt unfamiliar as he said it, but shock registered on Hanzo’s face, which then twisted into rage as he nocked another arrow and sent it curving towards Genji. Anticipating the arrow’s movements, Genji curved his body, crouching low to his right, and ducking beneath the arrow.

“I know you come here every year on the same day.” He said, slowly standing again. Baiting Hanzo into striking, measuring him. Hanzo snarled, and released another arrow, curving towards him.

Genji ducked behind a paper wall divider, then ducked under two more arrows that came stabbing through.“You risk so much to honour someone you murdered!” Genji snapped, turning, and tossing three shruiken towards Hanzo, who deflected them with an arrow, leaving them to thud into the wall behind him.

“You know nothing of what happened!” Hanzo yelled, a tinge of emotion, of pain, bleeding into his voice. _I know everything, brother. More than you yourself know._ Genji remembered his cruel words, his rising temper, the icy heat of his blade cutting into his skin. Hanzo rolled forward and drew a fresh arrow, launching it at Genji. He attempted to deflect it, but the force took him full in the chest and flung him over the edge.

He saw Hanzo sprinting towards him, and he ran, as Hanzo nocked another arrow, splitting into deadly fragments and ricocheting around Genji. He sprinted around the deadly blue shards, then spun, deflecting them quickly with his _wakizashi_ , once, twice, three, four, five times, then leaping up, like a gymnast, and landing in a narrow crouch.

He briefly locked eyes with Hanzo, then sheathed his blade, and sprinted out, onto the balcony, Hanzo following.

Hanzo walked out onto the balcony, Genji watching, hidden. “I know you tell yourself that your brother disobeyed the clan.” Goading him. Hanzo snarled and spun, sending an arrow into the wall with a thud.

“And that you had to kill him to maintain order. That is was your duty.” Genji said, revealing himself behind Hanzo, his _wakizashi_ held in his left hand. “It was my duty.” Hanzo said, turning, as he drew two arrows. “And my burden.” Genji sensed a pain to his voice. A deep, raw, pain. _Regret_. Hanzo spun, sending the first arrow towards Genji. He raised his _wakizashi_ , and deflected it almost lazily, sending it spinning into the air and landing in the floor.

“That does not mean I do not honour him!” Hanzo yelled, raising his bow with his last arrow nocked. Genji sensed the arrow leave the bow, heard it spinning through the air.

He raised his head, and, pivoting the _wakizashi_ in his hand, sliced into the arrow as it rushed toward him, splitting it in half, the two fragments landing behind him and sticking in the wood. 

Hanzo simply snarled, and charged Genji down, holding his bow like a club. Genji looked up, and for a brief moment, almost smiled. They traded blows back and forth, Genji constantly parrying and dodging them, leaping over his swings, casually deflecting them, angering Hanzo as much as he could.

He landed, and Hanzo swung his bow down, Genji just managing to bring up his _wakizashi_ to counter it, holding the blade in both hands. Hanzo narrowed his eyes with a savage snarl as he looked down at him, and for the first time in a long while, Genji felt the first trickles of fear.

Pushing back, he parried twice, and launched a vicious back kick, sending Hanzo flying into the balcony. Genji ran, and leaped into the air, bringing his _wakizashi_ down in a deadly arc. Hanzo reached for his bow, and just managed to catch the _wakizashi_ as Genji landed, the wood creaking beneath them.

“You think you honour your brother Genji with incense offerings?” Genji snarled, his visor inches from Hanzo’s face. “Honour resides in one’s actions.” _As you taught me all those years ago._ He saw Hanzo’s eyes flick off to the left. “You dare to lecture me about honour?” Hanzo said, incredulous, looking back up at Genji.

He looked into his brother’s deep brown eyes, and the trickle of fear grew into a torrent, as he saw something in his eyes.

Not rage, not anger, not pain.

Fury.

Pure, unbridled fury at this stranger insulting him.

“You are not worthy to say his name!” Hanzo roared, trapping the _wakizashi_ and forcing Genji off him, flinging him behind him.

 As he landed, Genji realised two things. All the rage and pain in Hanzo’s voice, was because of him.

That this stranger, this assassin, would dare to insult his brother’s memory. 

And the second thing; Hanzo’s tattoo, the twisting dragon design up his left arm, was taking on an ethereal blue light, as Hanzo readied an arrow. “Ryuu ga waga teki wo kurau!” he incanted, loosing the arrow, and releasing the dragons that were tied to the Shimada brother’s souls.

Two twisting, colossal cerulean dragons, roaring as they spun towards Genji. The torrent of fear was overwhelming, almost paralytic, as Genji remembered the first time he’d heard those words, as Hanzo’s rage spilled out of him and tore the tapestry, staining it with his blood. 

The words that had made him this.

 _I am not the boy I was then_. He said, grounding himself, and adjusting his stance as the dragons flew towards him.

He raised his left hand in a warrior’s salute, and reached over his right shoulder, to the hilt of the Dragonblade. Preparing himself. He probed deep, and found the dragon waiting.

He felt the fury coil within his chest, the anger of his past.

The dragon called to its master.

He drew it out an inch, revealing the green steel beneath, and looked up.

_He was ready._

“Ryujin no ken wo kurae!” he roared, unleashing the Dragonblade in two vicious arcs. _You think you control the dragons brother?_ He asked, as his verdant dragon appeared behind him, and he swung the blade forward. _The dragon becomes me._

The dragon rushed forward, tangling with Hanzo’s, as Genji twisted the blade around, spinning in a slow circle, guiding them back towards Hanzo. They barreled on, unchanged, now heading for Hanzo.

_Now you know the fear I felt._

Genji jerked the Dragonblade upwards, pulling his dragon away, just as Hanzo’s own dragons collided with him, beating him like an icy blizzard, forcing him to his knees.

Genji spun the Dragonblade, and returned it to his sheath, reverting from his combat form. The vents on his body opened with a hiss, releasing the steam and heat generated from their frenzied combat.

Hanzo knelt, defeated, across from him, staring at the floor in disbelief. “Only a Shimada can control the dragons.” He said, confused. “Who are you?” he said, looking up, narrowing his eyes. Genji almost laughed. _All these years brother, and still as foolish as ever_.

 The vents on his body clicked back into place as he rushed forward in a grey-green blur, and pressed his _wakizashi_ to Hanzo’s throat, forcing his gaze upwards. “Do it then.” Hanzo said, with a resigned finality. “Kill me.”

Genji turned to look at him, his broken brother, believing himself so far beyond redemption. Accepting his death. It would take a miracle to save him.

A ghost from the past.

“No.” he said, removing his _wakizashi_ and sheathing it. “I will not grant you the death you wish for. You still have a purpose in this life,” he lingered, then decided “brother.”

Hanzo started, then leapt up. “No! No!” he said, turning, confusion written across his face. “My brother is dead.” 

Genji reached up behind his head, and felt the two switches at the side. He pressed into them, and his visor lowered with a hiss, and he reached up and gently pulled it from his helm, allowing the cool Hanamura evening air to stroke his tender, damaged flesh beneath, and letting Hanzo see his face, exposing the man beneath the machine to his brother. “Genji!” Hanzo stammered, his eyes brimming with grief.

“What have you…become?” he said, uncertain, as Genji returned his visor. “I have accepted what I am, and I have forgiven you.”

_In combat, a man cannot lie. That is where you will find the truth of your brother._

“Now you must forgive yourself.” He walked past Hanzo, and laid a hand on his shoulder. “The world is changing once again, Hanzo,” he said, looking out over the Hanamuran skyline, and thinking of what was coming, and the beacon that had displayed “RECALL” across his visor.

Of his friends. Lena. Reinhardt. _Angela._  

“And it’s time to pick a side.” He said, leaping from the balcony to the roof below. He heard Hanzo run after him, and the creak of his bow as he drew his last arrow.

“Real life is not like the stories our father told us!” Hanzo yelled, and Genji smiled at the thought, remembering the tale of the dragons of the winds, their quarrels, their rage.

Their unity. _It is, m_ _ore so than you know, Hanzo._

“You were a fool for believing it so!”

“Perhaps I am a fool, to think there is still hope for you.” Genji countered.

He turned, and looked at the man his brother had become, all his anger and passion and hurt with nowhere to direct it.

_He will find it._

“But I do. Think on that, brother.” The word still felt unfamiliar as he said it, but he reclaimed it, bowing his head, and raising his hand in a warrior’s salute, and disappearing in a swirl of smoke, and leaving behind the feather of a sparrow.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations of Genji’s Ultimate are varying, but I went with “the dragon becomes me” for this fic.


End file.
